By Jo Ann Mather

The Gate Steward needs to be a combination of a drill sergeant and a diplomat – not an easy job, but there is probably no job that contributes so much to a smooth running trial. You need to assure a fast, smooth flow of dogs into and out of the gate.

At the beginning of each class, check to make sure that all dogs have checked in. If there is a dog that has not, try to find out if that dog is really absent or just hasn’t checked in.

Remember, exhibitors are nervous and tense. Get them in the ring, but don’t make anybody upset or angry.

Course stewards should "run, don’t walk" when performing their functions (straightening the chute, raising or lowering bars or changing out the table). Quick performance of these functions can do a lot toward an efficient running trial.

Familiarize yourself with the equipment before the trial begins. Find out if there are any idiosyncrasies with certain pieces of equipment. (The fewer the better!) Make sure the bar holders on the jumps are clearly marked so any idiot can figure out how to set the jump heights.

Check the teeter. Is it going to have to be sandbagged so it doesn’t rock?

Tunnel holders need to hold the tunnel in place. If they don’t do this, they’re worthless and might as well not be on there. Sandbags are not very effective. Milk jugs with sand or water in them are worthless. (Better than nothing, but not much.) Tunnels, especially if in an odd configuration, need to stay in place. A tunnel that has to be readjusted every time a dog runs is a huge time-waster and will make your trial go much longer than necessary. If you don’t have pre-made tunnel holders, the best thing to use is bungies over the tunnel end, held in place with tent stakes. Sandbags in the center of curved tunnels help hold them in shape as well.

Changing the table at jump height changes can be very time-consuming. The best thing to do is probably to have three separate tables and simply haul out the one you need at the height change. Failing this, make sure you put at least two people on the table and that they are well-schooled in how to change the height. If there are separate legs for each height, keep them right at hand so you don’t need to be fiddling for them. Recommendation – don’t keep them under the table – this can be a real distraction for some dogs. Keep them at ringside, separated out so you can grab the correct legs at the height change. Remember, there are three table heights:

• 8 & 12" jumpers use an 8" table
• 16 & 20" jumpers use a 20" table
• 24" jumpers use a 24" table

Double Jump – The two top bars are always set parallel – i.e both are set to the jump height of the dog. The lower bars should be crossed in an "X" pattern. This helps give the illusion of depth to the jump so he realizes he’s jumping something three-dimensional.

Triple Jump – The triple jump should have three bars on it – no more, no less. It is helpful to either color-code or mark the jump ahead of time so it’s obvious where the bars go for the different jump heights.

Broad Jump – This is set different ways depending on whether it’s an obedience-type jump or an agility "hogback" type. The judge will set the position of the front hurdle and this hurdle never moves. Change the jump by adjusting the other hurdles. To make it easier to set the jump, keep the folding tape under the jump at all times. Or, you can mark the different positions with golf tees ahead of time. (Probably the best idea.)

Generally, all jumps should have two bars on them. The top bar goes at the dog’s jump height, and the second bar goes approximately halfway between that height and the ground. The height of the second bar really is not critical. Since there are not very many dogs in agility who jump eight inches, clubs frequently forget about the "special needs" of these dogs. There must be a way to have two displaceable bars for dogs jumping eight inches – one at eight inches and one at around four inches.

In Excellent Standard and Excellent and Open JWW, there will be one or more jumps designated as "One Bar" Jumps. That jump will be designated on the diagram with a line with a number "1" in the middle of it, or with the words "One Bar". The steward needs to be aware that this is a designated one-bar jump and to not inadvertently put two bars on it.

Panel or Solid Jump – Put the panels on beginning at the bottom and working up. Otherwise you’ll end up knocking off the panels you’ve already set. For an eight-inch dog, there must be two panels – each four inches tall. You cannot use a solid eight-inch panel, as this is too heavy for the little guys to displace. If there’s no pole bracket at four inches, you can simply lean a 4-inch panel against the uprights for the bottom panel.

Tire Jump -- Remember the tire is a jump, too, and needs to be changed with the jump heights! J Tires really vary on how easy they are to change. Most tires around here are pretty easy, but I’ve run into some real beasts! Be sure your ring crew is trained on how this particular tire works. Tires should not tip over if the dog hits it – sandbags may be needed to prevent this.

• Make sure that you have all the judge’s courses for the day. While classes are running you can make a strategy for efficient and fast equipment changes. Brief your crew in advance as to who will move what. Have them ready to go when a new course must be built.
• If possible, shoo the judge away so that you can build the course. This will allow the judge to get a quick break and attend to other business that will keep the trial moving.
• The Chief Course Builder’s job is to direct the work of the course-building staff. Don’t waste time moving equipment yourself. Tell your people to come to you (don’t allow them to stand around in idle knots and clusters.) You should quickly instruct them what you want and where you want it. You should drop bars for the position of jumps.
• NOTE – for a Jumpers Course, the Base Line Method works very well. If the judge has not done so ahead of time, while the classes are running, mark off the course plan to show where each piece of equipment goes off the base line. Be sure to note where the center of the bars go, as jump wing width varies greatly as do bar lengths, so to assure accurate course building, you need to have the center of the jump in the proper place.

• An alternate way of setting Jumpers Course is to set the tunnels and the weave poles, then builds the critical areas of the course from there.

• Assign someone to pick up the numbers and lay them back down between classes. (Keep them in order). If you’re really good this is a measure of how long it should take you to do a course transition.
• When a course has initially been laid, keep your crew with you and tweak the obstacles.
• Finally, call for the judge to come tweak. You and maybe one other stay with the judge as he/she walks the course and does his/her own tweaking. Be patient and move anything that he directs, where he directs.

• Make sure you have adequate staffing for each part of the trial. If you don’t, be assertive about asking for help. Most people will help if you just ask.
• Ring crew should be instructed to run out onto the course between jump heights and make jump height changes. It is usually best to have teams that will attend to the obstacles most difficult to change first, like the table, long jump and some spread hurdles. When those are changed, the crew can fan out and take care of the rest of the jumps.
• Ask the gate steward to inform everyone on the field when the last dog in a jump height is prepared to start running, then after the dog runs to announce loudly the change in the jump height.
• Make sure your crew knows how to set the obstacles. It would be useful to prepare reference cards so that they know how to set the long jump and any spread hurdles for a given jump height.
• Your staff must be given assignments for resetting jump bars and straightening the collapsed tunnel/chute. Make sure that they understand that these tasks must be done very quickly. If one of your crew is taking too long to do a task, to the extent that it is holding up a dog from running (straightening the chute, for instance) you need to re-educate that person to work quicker or get someone else to do the job.
• Have a clean-up kit at ringside. Have someone assigned to run out when a dog fouls the course and get it cleaned up.

• Be efficient and fast, but try not to pressure the exhibitors – they are stressed out enough already. An exception to this is a recalcitrant exhibitor who won’t get themselves or their dog into the ring and holds up the whole trial. They may be shot, if necessary.
• Be sure everyone knows how to set the spread jumps and which tables are required for what jump heights. Chances are someone will be brought in to help set jumps who isn’t really trained in this and will need to be able to do it properly.
• If you’re renting porta-potties, call the company a day or two ahead and remind them of your event and when you need them delivered.
• Use stick-on labels for "armbands" rather than conventional rubber-band armbands. Of course, remember to take the label off your shirt before you wash it, or it will be on there forever!
• Have your score table and check-in table in two widely separated locations (score table should not be too far from the rings, otherwise the runner will die!), and mark the check-in table plainly so that people will not go to the score table for check in or general questions.

Have at least three baskets for your scribe sheets. The scribe sheet runner should put the sheets in the designated basket.

Also, it is very helpful to have a sheet of paper with the three SCTs and the yardage right in front of you for easy reference.

There should be a MINIMUM of two people at the score table – three is better, but if they are good and not disturbed too much, two people can handle it.

The scorer removes the sheet from the basket to calculate the score. First, convert the time to seconds. For instance, 1:08:04 is converted to 68:04. Write it in the appropriate place on the scribe sheet.

Next, glance at the bottom of the sheet to see if there are any faults that would non-qualify the dog. This varies by class, so you should familiarize yourself with this. Essentially it is:

All classes – any "F" (This means Failure to Perform, and is a non-qualifying fault in any class.)

Novice – More than 2 wrong courses; more than 2 refusals or any combination of wrong courses and refusals that add up to 4.

Open – More than one refusal, more than two wrong courses.

Excellent B – Any refusal, any table fault, any wrong course. (If there are any faults written at the bottom of an Excellent B scribe sheet, the dog will not qualify.)

Excellent A – Any refusal, more than one wrong course.

If the dog has received faults that would non-qualify it, you don’t need to go any further. Simply put a check mark in the area that lists the non-qualifying faults, write N.Q. on the bottom of the scribe sheet, and hand the sheet to the person doing the posting and/or catalog.

If that is not the case, and it looks like the dog may have qualified, first calculate the time faults by subtracting the dog’s time from the Standard Course Time. For instance, let’s assume that that dog’s time is 1:08:04 and the SCT is 63 seconds. To calculate the time faults, subtract 68 seconds (ignore the :04) from the SCT of 63 seconds. This would be 5 seconds over. You then multiply this number by the factor for that class (1 for Novice, 2 for Open and 3 for Excellent). So, in the example given, if this were a Novice dog, he would receive 5 time faults, if it were an Open dog, he would receive 10 time faults, and an Excellent dog would receive 15 time faults.

Write the time faults in the appropriate place.

Then total up the course faults, if any. Wrong courses are 5 points each; refusals are 5 points each and Table Faults are 2 points each.

Write the total of the course faults in the appropriate place.

Total up the time faults, plus the course faults.

Subtract from 100. If the total is 85 or more, the dog qualifies. Write "Q" at the bottom of the scribe sheet and circle it.

Pass the scribe sheet to the next person (or put it in the designated basket).

This may be one or two people. If it’s two people, the next person who gets the scribe sheet should be the Poster.

The poster should check the scribe sheet carefully to make sure the scorer has done it correctly. Then he writes down the dog’s time and score on the posting sheet. If the dog has not qualified, the only thing that should be written down is the score and N.Q. (It’s simply not possible to write down a numerical score for a non-qualifying dog.) If you are doing the "Gate Clerk/Headset" posting method, the poster should notify the Gate Clerk, via the headset what the score and time was for the dog. The Gate Clerk should repeat this so as to make sure he/she has it correctly.

At the conclusion of the class, the poster should calculate the placements. Only qualifying dogs will place. Place the dogs by score first, then time.

At the end of each class, count up how many dogs actually competed and how many qualified. Note this on the posting sheet. (This is needed for the trial chairman’s report.)

The catalog can be marked either from the scribe sheets or from the posting sheet. You mark a separate catalog for each day of the trial. In addition, the club gets a copy of the marked catalog as does the judge (three catalogs altogether). To save hassle, you may want to mark only one catalog, then photocopy it to mail to the judge(s) and to keep a copy for the club. The AKC catalog must be sent, together with the trial report and the check for the fees, within 7 days of the conclusion of the trial.

Marking the catalog:

There are only three notations that should be put in the catalog:

1 – If the dog is absent, write (or stamp) "Absent"

2. If the dog does not qualify, write "N.Q." That’s all – nothing else. No score, no time.

3. If the dog qualifies, you write the score and the time (The entire, correct time, as in the example given, you would write "68:04). You also need to write IN RED, and WRITTEN OUT – "Qualified". (You may have a stamp made up for this to save effort.)

Write the placements in the margin and circle them. You do not need to list the placements at the bottom at the end of each class, as you may have seen for obedience placements. AKC wants them noted in the margin.

Be sure the catalog contains the SCT and course yardage information for each class.

Make two piles of completed scribe sheets for each Class Division – a pile of "qualifieds" and a pile of "nonqualifieds". This is for the judge, who has to go through the scribe sheets and ascertain how many dogs qualified and if the scribe sheets are correct.

Be sure you have enough people for check-in. Two or three at minimum if you have an entry of more than 75 dogs. Suggest you have three lines and divide them alphabetically by last name.

If you do packets, sort them alphabetically by last name. Much easier to find individual people that way. Don’t make people remember or verify their catalog number! People generally can remember their last name. If they can’t they will get lost on the course anyway and probably don’t need to be running agility.

If you have different check-in times for the different classes, allow a person who is running more than one class to check all their dogs in at once. Don’t make them come back to check in their Novice (or whatever) dog later. This is a time-waster, comes across as rigidly bureaucratic and makes people irritated right off the bat. Running dogs in different classes is stressful enough without adding unnecessary petty annoyances to it.

Make sure that somehow the check-in list gets transferred to the Gate Steward’s list. It might be just as simple to check the dogs off directly on the Gate Steward’s list. The Gate Steward and scribe need to know who is there and who isn’t.

It is recommended that the check-in person hands the exhibitor a copy of the days courses (rather than having them in a stack on a table for exhibitors to help themselves.) Some exhibitors are greedy and take several copies of the courses; leaving no copies for exhibitors (usually Novice) who check in later.

You will need a flat surface (concrete or a sheet of plywood if you’re outdoors) to measure the dogs on. In a pinch you can measure them on the pause table, but that can be difficult for bigger dogs.

Suggest you make PVC measuring wickets, rather than using an adjustable measuring device. It is much faster and less intimidating for the dogs. Another nice thing about the individual measuring wickets is you can have separate queues for each jump heights.

Have the handler kneel or squat down next to their dog and make sure the dog holds still. The head should be level, but not held up. Give the handler and dog a few seconds to settle down. Have them rub the dog’s ears or scratch him under the chin to help him relax.

When the dog has relaxed and is still, put your hand on the dog’s shoulder and locate the withers. Then, slide the wicket from the back to the front (so the dog never really even sees it) and position it over the withers. If there is some question as to whether the dog is in size, have them wait to let the judge measure.

Don’t stop the show to hand out awards. You can give awards for the previous class while the course for the next class is being built.

Present awards as soon as possible (immediately!) after a class has finished. If the score table has kept up with the posting sheet this should not be a problem.

The judge may or may not wish to present the awards. He doesn’t have to, but it’s nice and some judges enjoy doing it. Others wish to take this time for a short break or to help with the course building. There should be two other people to help with the awards – one to read off the dog’s name, number and placement and the other to present the ribbon. Ribbons don’t have to be sorted out ahead of time, although it’s probably a good idea to do so.

If the judge presents the awards, let him hand the ribbon and prize to the exhibitor. The awards person hands the ribbon to the judge, who then hands it to the exhibitor.

When you read off the awards, read the dog’s call name as well as the catalog number – this makes it more personal.

Be sure to write the SCT and Course Yardage in the appropriate place for each jump height.

There are only three notations that should be put in the catalog:

1 – If the dog is absent, write "Absent" with the green ballpoint (so it will show through to the other copies and the judge and club can tell that dog didn’t compete).

2. If the dog does not qualify, write "N.Q." That’s all – nothing else. No score, no time.

3. If the dog qualifies, you write the score and the time. The entire, actual time. Stamp "Qualified" in red.

Remember to write the actual time – do not truncate the hundredths of a second after the decimal point. The whole time goes in the catalog. (Example – 41.62)

Write the placements in the margin and circle them.

At the end of the class, count up the number of dogs who competed and the number who qualified and write it on the first page for that class in the appropriate spot.

Make two piles of completed scribe sheets for each Class Division – a pile of "qualifieds" and a pile of "nonqualifieds". This is for the judge, who has to go through the scribe sheets and ascertain how many dogs qualified and if the scribe sheets are correct.

Get the white board for your class from the check-in table.

Set the two-way radio on "Manual". To talk, push the gray button. Keep it turned off until you are ready to begin the class and make sure it is turned off when you finish.

Get the SCT and Yardage for each jump height from the judge or the scorekeeper and write it on the line provided.

Be nice to the exhibitors. The reason for posting the scores on these sheets is so they can get their score quickly.

Assist the gate steward in getting the dogs lined up and into the ring.

At the conclusion of a jump height, confer with the scorekeeper on the placements for that class and write them in the margin.

At the end of the class, take the gate steward sheets off the white board and post them on the fence. Take the white board back to the check-in table.

Excellent Standard Yardage SCT

Open Standard

Novice Standard

Excellent JWW

Open JWW

Novice JWW